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 <h2>ReadySET: User FAQ</h2>

 <h3>General Information</h3>

 <dl>
  <dt>What is ReadySET?</dt>

  <dd>It is a set of ready-to-use software engineering templates.
  Please, see the <a href="http://readyset.tigris.org/">ReadySET homepage</a>.</dd>


  <dt>Where does the name "ReadySET" come from?</dt>

  <dd>"ReadySET" is short for "Ready-to-use Software Engineering
  Templates".  It also sounds like the phrase "ready, set, go!" which
  is said at the beginning of a race to give everyone a fair start.
  </dd>


  <dt>Where did the ideas for ReadySET templates come from?</dt>

  <dd>The general idea came from a need for me to provide a lot of
  guidance to university students learning software engineering
  without spending time lecturing to them.  This fits well with the
  tigris.org mission of promoting open source software engineering,
  and previous efforts, like <a
  href="http://argouml.tigris.org/">ArgoUML</a> to ease adoption of
  software engineering tools and practices in industry.  The content
  of specific templates came from our understanding of software
  engineering literature, our experience on software development
  projects, and our understanding of cognitive challenges of
  engineering decision-making.
  </dd>


  <dt>What is the competition for ReadySET?</dt>

  <dd>The main alternative to ReadySET is to do it yourself and
  reinvent the wheel or try to generalize from whatever documents you
  produced on your last project.  That pattern leads to many
  individuals in our industry trying to develop their own methodology
  as they move from project to project and company to company.
  ReadySET is an attempt to gather that same knowledge from many
  people and share it more effectively.  There are also products such
  as <a
  href="http://www.merant.com/News/PR/PR_02182003.asp">EssentialSET</a>
  and <a href="http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/rup/">RUP</a>.</dd>

 </dl>


 <h3>Download and Install</h3>

 <dl>
  <dt>How can I obtain ReadySET?</dt>

  <dd><a href="http://readyset.tigris.org/servlets/ProjectDocumentList">Download it</a>.
  Please, see the <a href="http://readyset.tigris.org/">ReadySET homepage</a>.</dd>


  <dt>What licence covers ReadySET?</dt>

  <dd>The <a href="../templates/readyset-license.html">ReadySET
  license</a> is a BSD-style license.</dd>


  <dt>What do I need to use ReadySET?</dt>

  <dd>A web browser and a text editor or HTML editor.  Please see our
  list of <a href="recommended-tools.html">recommended tools</a>.</dd>

  <dd>It is also strongly recommended that you use a web server, a
  version control system, and web-based issue tracking system.  You
  can work through setting up these tools yourself, or use a
  Collaborative Development Environment such as <a
  href="http://www.collab.net/">CollabNet's SourceCast</a>.</dd>


  <dt>How do I install ReadySET?</dt>

  <dd>Simply unarchive it.  Make a copy of the template files to use
  as your project documents.</dd>


  <dt>How do I upgrade from an older version of ReadySET?</dt>

  <dd>For any users not using CVS for their own project:
   simply copy-and-paste any desired text from the new templates
    into your project documents.
  </dd>

  <dd>For users that use CVS for their own project: you can use CVS's
    <a
    href="http://cvsbook.red-bean.com/cvsbook.html#Tracking_Third-Party_Sources__Vendor_Branches_">vendor
    branch</a> feature to help you merge the latest changes from the
    ReadySET project into your project.  Follow these <a
    href="HOWTO-upgrade.html">upgrade steps</a>.
  </dd>

 </dl>


 <h3>Main Concepts</h3>

 <dl>
  <dt>What is a "ReadySET template"?</dt>

  <dd>It is an HTML file that with sample text that you should use to
  create project documents.</dd>


  <dt>What is a "project document"?</dt>

  <dd>It is an HTML file, copied from a ReadySET template, that
  contains specific information about your project.</dd>


  <dt>What is a "prompt"?</dt>

  <dd>In most other document template sets, the templates are
  basically outlines with headings and subheadings.  In ReadySET
  subheadings are written in the form of a question or prompt.  That
  helps make the documents more self-explanatory and easier for other
  stakeholders to quickly read or write an answer to.</dd>


  <dt>What are the colored bars in the right-hand margin?</dt>

  <dd>Those bars indicate sections of sample text.  They are
  explicitly marked so that you can see at a glance which parts have
  been filled in and which parts are still the original sample text.
  Once you edit the text, you should remove the HTML attribute
  class="sample1" to remove the bar.</dd>

  <dt>Why are there multiple answers (and colored bars) to each prompt?</dt>

  <dd>Rather than give a long explanation of the meaning of each
  prompt, ReadySET includes a few sample answers to most prompts.
  That works best when one of the sample answers includes ideas that
  relate to your specific project.  In many cases, much of the process
  of filling in a template is reduced to "chipping away" at the sample
  text by removing text that does not apply to your project.</dd>

  <dt name="chipaway">What is "chipping away"?</dt>

  <dd>The term "chipping away" comes from an old joke: when a sculptor
  is asked how he carved a marble statue of a horse, he replies "It
  was easy, I just started with a big block of marble and chiped away
  everything that did not look like a horse."</dd>


  <dt>What is an "attached worksheet"?</dt>

  <dd>The idea is similar to filling in an IRS form and using
  worksheets to calculate subtotals or make specific decisions.  That
  is to say, there is a hierarchy to the templates: there are the main
  templates, and then worksheets for specific topics.  We have divided
  the information into several files so that each file is focused on
  one topic, and so that each file can be worked on by one person in a
  reasonable amount of time.</dd>

  <dt>What is the "process impact" box about?</dt>

  <dd>The process impact box explains where the current template fits
  into the software development process.  It usually includes a brief
  comment on who should create the document, and who would be expected
  to make use of it.  You can change the process impact box, but you
  should not need to.</dd>


  <dt>What is a "checklist"?</dt>

  <dd>There are two kinds of checklists:
   <ul>
    <li>Many of the templates have a section with questions that help
    you check your work in that template.  Often the sample answers to
    the questions prompt you to take some corrective action.</li>

    <li>For design and code review meetings, there are links to
    guidelines and checklists that help you identify common errors in
    those artifacts.</li>
   </ul>
  </dd>


  <dt>What is a "sticky note"?</dt>

  <dd>The idea is similar to a post-it note attached to a document
  that tells you do "sign here" or fill in a certain part.  There are
  two types of sticky notes:
  <ul>
   <li>TODO: Instructs you on how to fill in the template.  This is
   the minimum that you need to do.  One of the main goals of ReadySET
   is to help your team <i>quickly</i> carry out basic software
   engineering activities.  The TODO sticky notes make that easy by
   making the templates more self-explanatory.</li>

   <li>TIP: Helps you think of better ways to fill in the template.
   One of the other main goals of ReadySET is to help your team make
   better decisions that can make your whole project more successful.
   The TIP sticky notes help with that.</li>
  </ul>

  After you have done what the sticky note says, you can delete the
  sticky note.  In the HTML file, they are marked with class="sticky".
  </dd>


  <dt>Why do some links have dashed underlines?</dt>

  <dd>Those are links to the definitions of terms.  They are visually
  different so that readers whill know that they can quickly read the
  definition of that term without being side-tracked.  Also, the
  dashed underlines do not appear when the document is printed.</dd>

 </dl>



 <h3>Configuring and Customizing ReadySET</h3>

 <dl>

  <dt>One of the ReadySET templates is not needed for my project.  How
  do I remove it?</dt>

  <dd>Just delete it, and remove any links to it.</dd>


  <dt>How do I add a new file to the set?</dt>

  <dd>Just open a new file in your HTML editor.  Save the file, and
  add links to it from other templates as you see fit.  You may want
  to copy an existing template and tear out all its content and put
  your content there instead, that way the new template will have the
  proper HTML HEAD elements, but these are simple anyway.</dd>


  <dt>How can I use ReadySET for projects using technologie like .NET or J2EE?</dt>

  <dd>ReadySET does not have any complex customization tools.  There
  are no "plug-ins" or meta-models.  Those layers of abstraction make
  it harder to get started.  ReadySET is just a set of XHTML
  templates.  You can edit them any way you like, it is up to you and
  there is nothing preventing you from doing it.  <a
  href="http://www.readysetpro.com/">ReadySET&nbsp;Pro</a> takes a more powerful
  approach that does have a bit of a learning curve, but scales well
  to corporate usage.</dd>

  <dt>How can I add "Company Proprietary" to every page?</dt>

  <dd>That text is already there in a paragraph with CSS
  class="legal1".  Normally that CSS style is invisible.  You can make
  it visible by editing css/inst.css to uncomment the line "display:
  block !important".  If you need to change the text, you can use a
  global search and replace in your text editor.</dd>


  <dt>Who uses ReadySET?</dt>

  <dd>Stay tuned to the ReadySET mailing list for user testimonials.</dd>

 </dl>



 <h3>Contributing to the Project</h3>

 <dl>

 <dt>Who can contribute to this project?</dt>

 <dd>Everyone is welcome, especially project managers or team leads
 who have first-hand experience on many projects where templates like
 these would have helped.</dd>


 <dt>How can someone start to contribute?</dt>

 <dd>Make sure that you are familiar with the templates, then send
 your comments to the project mailing list and we will go from there.
 Only a core group of developers will have commit access, but others
 can make contributions via the mailing list and we will review them
 and integrate changes.</dd>

 <dd>Please do not send in any proprietary or copyrighted content.  We
 will have to immediately delete it.  E.g., if you have a document
 template that you use at your current company, please do not send it.
 Instead, you can give us a few bullet points or examples on specific
 things that you think help make that type of document more useful
 based on your general experience.  Of course, you should never send
 in any actual document that contains any actual information about
 your business, product plans, schedules, budgets, personnel, or
 customers.</dd>

  <dt>Who is contributing to ReadySET?</dt>

  <dd>Stay tuned to the ReadySET mailing list for information.</dd>


 </dl>



 <h3>Other Questions</h3>

 <dl>
  <dt>My question is not on this page.  How do I find the answer?</dt>

  <dd>Your question may have already been asked and answered, to find
  it: search the project <a
  href="http://readyset.tigris.org/servlets/SummarizeList?listName=dev">mail
  archives</a> and <a
  href="http://readyset.tigris.org/servlets/ProjectIssues">issue
  tracking system</a>.  If you still don't find it, you can ask the
  question on the the ReadySET developers' mailing list or you can
  enter an issue.  You must subscribe to the mailing list before you
  may post.  For commercial support and training, see <a
  href="http://www.readysetpro.com/">ReadySET&nbsp;Pro</a>.  </dd>

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